How many Kris's are made of Indian steel?

[A. G. Maisey]

This is a matter of some interest to me, Jens, but the question you have raised is probably impossible to answer.

In what I have written below, I am assuming that the Indian steel to which you refer is wootz, however, I do find the quoted passage somewhat confusing, because in one breath the author refers to "Masulipatam steel", and then he speaks of "---annual production of iron in India---".Indian steel I take to be wootz; Indian iron I would assume to be bloomery iron, but I would equally assume that such Indian bloomery iron would be essentially indistinguishable from any other bloomery iron.

There is a very rare type of pamor, which is really not pamor at all, but metal which displays the characteristics of wootz; it is probably reasonable to assume that keris displaying this type of pamor are constructed from Indian material.

Professor Jerzy Piaskowski of Poland carried out extensive testing of old keris blades, gonjos, and tombak. His metallurgical investigations were directed at discovery of the types of material used in construction of early wesi aji, and the methods used for construction. From all of his testing, only one gonjo was shown to contain wootz.

Looked at from a logical point of view , it would not be desirable, both from the practical and the economic viewpoints , to construct an entire keris blade from wootz, or to use wootz as pamor material in combination with a contrasting material, such as high phosphorus iron, so where wootz was used in a blade, it could be expected to be as the core , only. Detection of wootz used as core material would be extremely difficult, short of metallurgical laboratory testing.

[Jens Nordlunde]

When I wrote the thread I did realise the mention of both iron and steel, but I let it pass, as I felt sure that someone with a bigger knowledge that I have on the subject would comment on it - just like you did.
Yes, I too believe that the iron mentioned must have been bloomery and the steel must have been wootz - although I can't be sure. What surprised me, however, was the amount exported to a 'single' place, so I would be surpriced if it is only a few kris's which are made of Indian iron/steel.

[A. G. Maisey]

I think that it is probably reasonable to assume that a very great number of items made of ferric material in Jawa and the old East Indies did contain material that originated in India, however, the material that originated from India was very probably only a part of the entire manufactured article.

From a historical perspective, one of the processes in the making of keris, and other wesi aji, is the "washing" of the material. This washing is carried out to remove excess carbon from the material prior to use. Wootz has a high carbon content. If the material being used to produce wesi aji was wootz, then naturally it was necessary to subject it to repeated welding to reduce the carbon content to a manageable level.

However, the external body of the keris and some other wesi aji, is constructed of a mix of materials, "pamor". The mix perhaps made necessary to extend the quantity of material, and/or create a stronger material.

I do not think that we can ever ask:- "how many keris were made of Indian material?"

But I do think that we can assume that India was a source for much of the material used in Jawa and the East Indies for the production of keris and other wesi aji.

[lemmythesmith]

Hi Jens, Hi Alan, What I'm wondering about is how the steel for the core of a keris is constructed? Is it smelted as rough steel and then refined by washing to even out the carbon content through carbon migration (as a Japanese smith makes blade steel from tamahagane) or is it a mixture of say, wootz with wrought iron washed together to make damascus type material? I know from recent experience if you combine a small amount of wootz and cast iron with wrought iron and fold it you get a pretty hard steel when it's quenched. (LOTS of red short too!) I know today high carbon steel bar stock is often used, but how did they make steel for keris before bar stock was available? Wonder if wootz came in handy then?

[A. G. Maisey]

I don't know Lemmy, but I think that if it is reasonable to assume that they had access to wootz, then it is also reasonable to assume that washed wootz without additions was used for the core. I say "without additions", because the core of a keris is invariably solid black when stained, additions of other material would give colour variations.

[Boedhi Adhitya]

Hi all,

Last year in Museum National Jakarta, fragments of crucible found in archeological excavation were exhibited. Some of them labeled 'iron crucible', (others are gold and copper crucibles) dated to 14 c. / Majapahit Kingdom. I don't know whether this label was 'haphazardly' made, or there was really examination on the remaining slag in it. However, it proofs that Javanese were able to make crucibles and hence there was a possibility that Javanese smith was making their own crucible/wootz steel. I don't have any clue regarding other methods such as blister steel or carbon migration, but it is worth to bear in mind that trading with Chinese has long been established, and chinese also migrated to Java. It is very possible that there were a capable blacksmith/iron worker among them. Japanese, from materials I've read, also learnt their art/skills from Chinese and then improved it.

Java itsef should be considered as 'net importer' of iron, but in some area in archipelago, iron ore, and thus iron smelting centers certainly existed. Luwu, for example, has been trading iron at least since 14 c. Other areas were Ternate and Palembang (Bangka-Belitung). Unfortunately, I haven't read anything about the kind of iron were produced (wrought iron or steel), but to be in the safe side, we better assume it was wrought iron. Needless to say, there was no notes regarding the production amount and it was sure that the archipelago's iron production wasn't sufficient to fulfill it's own needs.

Faced with irons which originated from different areas, Javanese blacksmith must be aware of the different qualities/characteristics of each iron, based on its origin, which certainly connected to the impurities in the ores and the method used to smelt it. Thus, they might mix some iron from different sources, to enhances it's quality. This practice makes an attempt to determine irons origin which compose a product (such as keris) based on it's impurity becomes very hard.

If I'm not mistaken, Dutch also brought European's iron to achipelago for trading. In 17th C., Europeans have already used the blast furnaces and puddling to refine the pig iron, haven't they ?

[A. G. Maisey]

That's interesting, Pak Boedhi. I've got to get to Jakarta again some day. Haven't been there for years.

Anyway--- let's assume that it was indeed a crucible that had iron deposits in it, that does not prove iron production in Jawa. It indicates that there may have been iron production in Jawa.

A few years back Dietrich Drescher did a smelt of sand (I think) from somewhere in the south-west of Jawa (again "I think"---I'm pretty vague on the details of this), and demonstrated conclusively that the possibility was there for Jawa to produce iron. So, yes, we know that Jawa could have produced iron, but to the best of my knowledge we do not yet know if in fact iron was produced in Jawa. I think we'd probably need some archaeological evidence to demonstrate this.

There is no doubt that iron was produced in maritime SE Asia outside of Jawa, so it is probably reasonable to assume that it was also produced in Jawa, but we do not yet have the proof, at least as far as I know.

On a number of occasions, and in a number of places, I have put forward the proposition that early pamor was the result of necessity in mixing irons of differing qualities to produce workable material, and to extend the quantity of high grade material that was available. A working smith is able by simple tests to identify various qualities in material. I wrote fairly comprehensively on this in an another thread on this forum, but I forget where it is to be found. It can probably be found with a search if you're interested.

As you say, iron used in Jawa would have come from differing sources. There is a particular pamor that has the external appearance of wootz. I think it might be possible that this particular pamor material is wootz of a quality that was able to be used in an unadulterated form.In the case of this material we might be able to assume that it is of Indian origin, but , as you say, once you start to mix material from one source, with material from another its probably impossible to identify origins.

Jawa may have imported iron, but it also exported iron products to the rest of maritime SE Asia, and to as far away as South India. The Book of Duarte Barbosa (about 1518) makes interesting reading. Writing about the Javanese trading ships that came to Malaka:- "---In these ships the Jaos (Javanese) bring hither great store of rice, beef, sheep, swine, deer, salt meat, fowls, garlic, and onions, and also bring for sale many weapons , spears, daggers, short swords all finely worked and damascened on fine steel--------".

So it was not just a matter of obtaining sufficient iron to satisfy local needs, but obtaining sufficient iron to satisfy a manufacturing industry that exported weapons to the rest of SE Asia, and beyond.